The present disclosure relates to a fixing device and an image forming apparatus including the fixing device. More specifically, the disclosure relates to a fixing device having a charge elimination member for performing charge elimination from a recording medium that has passed through a fixing-and-nipping part, as well as to an image forming apparatus including the fixing device.
Conventionally, an electrophotographic type image forming apparatus such as copiers and printers performs a sequential process of: carrying a toner image on a surface of an image carrier such as a photosensitive drum or an intermediate transfer belt; transferring the toner image carried on the surface of the image carrier onto a recording medium; subsequently feeding the recording medium into a fixing device to make the toner image fixed on the recording medium by the fixing device; and thereafter conveying the recording medium to a discharge tray or the like.
The fixing device is equipped with a fixing member made up of a roller and a belt as an example, and a toner image is fixed onto the recording medium by this fixing member. In this case, since a recording medium onto which the toner image is to be fixed by the fixing member bears electric charges thereon, electric charges are deposited and accumulated on the surface of the fixing member each time a fixing operation is repeated.
Under such circumstances, there has been known an image forming apparatus in which a charge elimination member is provided on a downstream side of a fixing-and-nipping part, where the charge elimination member is put into contact with a portion of the recording medium that has passed through the fixing-and-nipping part so as to fulfill charge elimination from the recording medium as well as charge elimination also from the fixing member via the recording medium. Such an image forming apparatus has a need for maintaining the charge elimination member at a specified potential. For this reason, a contact sheet metal which is maintained at a specified potential is provided in a fixing housing, where the charge elimination member and the contact sheet metal are electrically connected to each other by a contact member.